Do yourself a humongous favor, do not listen to the media when it comes to the delegate count. They are intentionally deceiving us. What they fail to share with the public is that there are 100's of delegates that are uncommitted. For instance, the Ohio caucus was held on January 3rd and 26 delegates are uncommitted. The Colorado caucus was held on February 7th and 33 delegates are uncommitted and 3 additional are unbound. The Minnesota caucus was also held on February 7th and they have 37 uncommitted delegates and 2 additional are unbound. The Maine caucus was held the week of February 4-10 and they have 21 uncommitted delegates with an additional 1 that is unbound. Are you beginning to see the picture I am painting for you? From January 3rd to the recent March 13th primaries, there are a total of 255 combined UNCOMMITTED and UNBOUND delegates that have not been allocated to any candidate and 26 states have yet to vote.
This republican presidential primary race is far from being in the bag for anybody! Oh and the delegate count the media shares with the public are ESTIMATES aka "projections". The AP likes to skew the delegate numbers in Mitt Romney's favor. Because as I mentioned before, the AP are ardent Pres Obama supporters. Take Hawaii for instance, I just heard FOX news repeat with a smirk that Ron Paul only got 1 delegate. That's untrue. Ron Paul secured 3 delegates and Hawaii has 3 additional delegates that are unbound. So that's why I say don't pay attention to how the media reports the delegate count. Go straight to the source! Plus, the race is still hot. If Newt Gingrich decides to drop out of the race, the delegates he's acquired up to now will be UNBOUND and up for grabs. So hold on to your hats folks!
US Republican presidential primary election, 2012
[source: wikipedia]
The primary contest takes place from January 3 to July 14 and will elect 2,286 voting delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention in the week of August 27. To become the Republican Party's nominee for the 2012 presidential election a candidate needs a majority of 1,144 delegates to vote for him. The 2012 race are significantly different from earlier races. Many states have switch from their old winner-take-all allocation to proportional allocation. Many remaining winner-take-all states are allocating delegates to both the winner of each congressional district and the winner of the state. The change was made to prolong the race, giving lesser known candidates a chance and making it harder for a frontrunner to secure the majority early. It was also hoped that this change in the election system would energize the base of the party. Most of the candidates started their campaigns in the summer of 2011, but after the two first primaries only 4 major campaigns remained. They try to gather candidates from the following 3 groups:
- 1951 bound delegates are allocated to the candidates at caucuses and primaries or later at local conventions. 3 of these were elected as uncommitted and 2 were allocated to Huntsman but became unbound.
- 212 unbound elected delegates can not committ themselve to any candidate before they are elected as National Convention Delegates at their local conventions.
- 123 unbound RNC delegates attend the convention by virtue of their position. The rest of the party leaders will attend as bound or nonvoting delegates.
The race for a majority of National Convention Delegates can be broken up into groups of state contests:
Early states: 12 states with 374 delegates.
- 240 bound delegates, 66 of these are allocated later. (two allocated to Huntsman are unbound)
- 116 unbound elected delegates, all elected later.
- 18 unbound RNC delegates.
Super Tuesday: 10 states with 437 delegates.
- 419 bound delegates.
- 18 unbound RNC delegates.
Mid-March primaries: 6½ states and 5 territories with 350 delegates. (Louisiana allocates only half its delegation in March)
- 296 bound delegates. 49 of these are allocted later. (two delegate from Virgin Islands was elected as uncommitted)
- 24 unbound elected delegates, 12 of these are elected later.
- 30 unbound RNC delegates.
- 12 bound delegates from early states are allocated. (Wyomings CD, one delegate was elected as uncommitted)
April primaries: 7½ states and D.C. with 355 delegates (Louisiana allocates only half its delegation in April)
- 301 bound delegates.
- 33 unbound elected delegates, all elected later.
- 21 unbound RNC delegates.
- 38 bound delegates from earlier contests are allocated. (Wyomings AL and Missouris CD)
- 57 unbound delegates from earlier contests are elected. (Minnesota CD and Colorado AL/CD)
May primaries: 7 states with 396 delegates.
- 359 bound delegates.
- 16 unbound elected delegates, all elected later.
- 21 unbound RNC delegates.
- 40 bound delegates from earlier contests are allocated. (Washington State AL/CD)
- 34 unbound delegates from earlier contests are elected. (Minnesota AL and Maine AL/CD)
June primaries: 7 states with 374 delegates.
- 336 bound delegates, 32 of these are allocated July 14. (Nebraska AL/CD)
- 23 unbound elected delegates.
- 15 unbound RNC delegates.
- 25 bound delegates from Mid-March are allocated. (Missouris AL)
- 86 unbound delegates from earlier contests are elected. (Illinois AL, Indiana AL, Iowa AL/CD, Louisiana AL/CD and Pennsylvania AL)
please click link to look at the table provided by wikipedia
These tables shows how and when the National Convention delegates are allocated for the candidates. This means they do not include straw polls, primary or other kinds. And they do not include the dates for different local conventions where the bound delegates are personally elected or selected. The last tables show the local conventions from states with nonbinding entry level contests (an entry level contest is the state primary or caucuses where all Republican voters can participate). Notice that NMI, GU, VI and MT's local conventions are their first and only contests.
Date: This is the date where the delegates are bound to a candidate or the date where the first step to electing the delegates is taken. Some states have caucuses that stretch for more than one day. (Louisiana has two dates because the state has two first step elections, both a primary and caucuses)
State: In addition to the fifty state contests there are also five territorial contests and one federal district contest
There are three types of delegates. In this table they are listed by the way the candidates secure them, in a few states that is by the at-large state vote even though the individual delegates are selected on the district level.
- (RNC) Three delegates: 2 members of the Republican National Committee and the state party chairperson from each non-penalized state. 11 states bind these delegates to the at-large state result; the rest are unbound.
- (AL) Delegates elected At-Large in the state or territory
- (CD) Delegates elected in each Congressional District
Contest type: There are two types: Caucus and Primary, which are regulated in many different ways in the local states.
Bound delegates: These pledged delegates are legally bound to vote for a candidate for at least the first ballot at the National Convention. All 3 types of delegates can be bound, depending on the local state rules.
Unbound delegates: There are 120 RNC delegates that are free to vote for any candidate they like, and the candidates are free to woo them. Up to 340 AL and CD delegates are unbound (unpledged). They are elected at conventions through the land, and the candidates work to get as many of their supporters to join these conventions through caucus and primaries in the respective states.
Delegate allocation: It can be the same on both the state and district level or it can be different. The 2012 election has more proportionally-allocated contests than the 2008 election.
Winner-take-all. In some state and districts this method will not be used unless one candidate gets a majority of all the votes. States may use winner-take-all and allocate delegates by CD (congressional district), in which case different CDs may go to different candidates. States may use winner-take-all allocation and allocate all delegates at large, in which case the state delegation as a whole is winner-take-all.
Proportional: Most states that elect delegates proportionally have thresholds that candidates must meet to be given delegates; these thresholds range from 10% to 25% percent of the votes. But a few states that elect delegates proportionally have no such threshold.
Loophole: The original advisory preference/delegate selection type of primary, where the voters vote for the candidate in an advisory primary and separately vote for a candidate slate. So even though the delegates technically are unbound, they will, by using the loophole, become practically bound to a candidate.
Convention: If the national convention delegates are unbound or they are not bound at the first caucuses held in the state, the state convention is where they get elected. The dates for these local conventions are shown in brackets. For contests in some small territories or states, the caucus can be the convention.
Committee. The date the local state committee elects delegates is in brackets.
Secured delegates: There are two ways to secure a delegate for a candidate. The delegate can be legally bound to a candidate via the state contest, or the delegate can personally commit to support a candidate. The unbound delegates (Superdelegates) fall into four categories: 120 unbound party leaders (shown in brackets), 218 unbound delegates allocated at conventions, 3 uncommitted delegates and 2 delegates that were allocated to Huntsman but are now unbound.
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